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Cycle News 2001 02 21

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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By 30 YEARS AGO.•• MARCH 2, 1971 Mel Disharoon was photographed working on the new Drag Bike Engineering supercharged, fuel-injected Harley-Davidson drag bike for the cover of Issue #7. The machine ran a 10.19·second run at 152 mph its first time out at Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, California... Gary Jones rode a factory Yamaha, which was about 40 pounds lighter than anything on the line, to victory in the 250cc Senior class at a motocross event in Valencia, California. Harry Everts rode to the 125cc Senlor win with ease... We interviewed 1970-71 sea· son National Enduro Champion Jack McLane. He rode a Honda 350 to many wins and said that his radng, much to the chagrin of his wife, takes away from his family life. But those are the sacrifices that are made when you're a National enduro competitor... Jim O'Neal raced a CZ to the 250cc Senior motocross victory in Oak Creek Ranch, California. Wayne Garrett (Yam) topped the 125cc Senior class, but O'Neal came back to win the Open Senior class on a CZ as well. 20 YEARS AGO•.. FEBRUARY 25, 1981 Team Suzuki's Darrell Shultz won the first and second Supercross races of his career during the Seattle doubleheader, and for that he graced the cover of Issue #7. The doubleheader marked rounds two and three of the Supercross series and Shultz held a narrow three-point advantage over fellow Suzuki speedster Mark Barnett going into round four, while defending series champion Mike Bell (Yam) sat third in points, nine points behind the leader and one point ahead of Suzuki's Kent Howerton ... The CMC Golden State MX Sllries finale was a barnbumer, as Ron Turner (Suz) ran away with both moto Wins, but it wasn't enough to unseat Danny Chandler (Suz), as he won the 125cc Pro championship. Rex Staten (Yam) won the 250 and 500cc Pro classes... Ronnie Lechien (Yam) won the 125cc Expert Stock and Modified classes at the Barona Raceway series opener in San Diego, California. Bader Manneh (Kaw) won the Minicycle Stock and Modified Intermediate (12-16) classes, while Tommy Clowers won the Junior Cycle Modified (0·8) class. 10 YEARS AGO••• FEBRUARY 27, 1991 Ted Hunnicutt (Kaw) rode through the rocks of Ridgecrest, California, for the cover of Issue #7. Hunnicutt won the Moose Run National Championship Hare and Hound ahead of the ATK-mounted duo of Don Griewe and Chris Crandall, who finished second and third... The final round of the CMC Colden State Nationais wrapped up at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California, and the Pro championships were won by Rodney Smith (125cc), Willie Surratt (250cc) and Mike Healey (500cc). Michael Brandes won the 125 and 250cc Intermediate titles... The OFI Amateur Supercross Series visited San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium, and the star of the day was 15year-old Donald Upton (Hon) who estab· lished himself as a rider to watch after winning the 125cc Youth (12-15) class with apparent ease over Brian Deegan (Kaw)... Larry Linkogle (Suz) won the 80cc Expert class at Perris Raceway in Perris, California, while the 80cc Beginner class was won by Jiri Dostal (Suz). LC(I STEVE COX t seems like everyone knows the match, while Tyson owned that title Honda teammate Steve Lamson in name Jeremy McGrath. From and he knew it. Los Angeles and a flat rear tire near upper-echelon Hollywood stars, raceThomas Alva Edison once said, the end of the season didn't help any, car drivers and mainstream profes"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man but the fact remains that The King sional athletes to your average Joe - and I will show you a failure." No lost by a mere 15 points to Kawasawho has never even seen a Superone would be crazy enough to call ki's Jeff Emig that year. The beast cross event on TV or otherwise, it McGrath a failure, but even he has was awakened again. seems that the champ's name is had his moments of complacency. He Switching to Yam'aha in 1998, with familiar to just about everybody. This admitted to not training quite as hard pride perhaps being one reason keepisn't by' accident. As most of our for the 1994 season as he had for his ing him from returning to Honda, he readers know, he has set and reset 1993 250cc rookie season, and it won seven of the 16 rounds, but more records that may never be broken. added up to "only" nine wins in '94 importantly he finished on the podiWhen you say Supercross, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - urn in Virtually every race people automatically think of and ended up winning the I The image of Tyson crawling around on the ring floor half-conscious will probably never be erased from my mind. Jeremy McGrath. It's lucky for McGrath, and the fans as well, that those records were there for him to beat, and to improve upon, because many athletes have grown com placent in their dominance. in the 'past, and without those records to reach for, McGrath may have, too (given the relative absence of competition). McGrath has always said that he just wants to win, but it's human nature to get bored when you aren't being challenged anymore. Mike Tyson, for example, was so dominant in his early championship boxing days that he would, more often than championship by a dominant 51 points. He was back, with a vengeance. By the end of 1998, it seemed that the competition was becoming complacent again. From that point through the 2000 season, it seemed that any rider running second to McGrath was thinking, "Well, only McGrath is beating me. I'm satisfied with that. I won the non-McGrath class tonight." They were satisfied, and thus they failed. Ten times they failed in 2000, and they collectively lost the championship for and a 48-point lead at the end of the series. By normal standards, that's complete dominance, but by McGrath's 1993 standards, he was slacking. He won the·first four races in 1994, but he only got nine wins, while in 1993, his rookie season, he got 10 wins even though he didn't get his first until round three, and he won the championship by 57 points. Thomas Alva Ed ison once sa id, "Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure." not, knock out his opponent in the first round, and many times it took him less than a minute! As his dominance became more and more apparent, and he kept checking challengers off of the still-to-fight list, he got bored. He started training less and less for each upcoming fight. He would train at 75 percent before a fight, then win it in the first round; then he'd train at 50 percent, and win it in the first round, etc. All this led up to one fateful evening in Japan, when he met up with James "Buster" Douglas. the seventh time in eight years. Finally, in 2001, Jeremy has what he has been wishing for - some competition. There's a kid from Florida who, when he finds himself behind McGrath, thinks, "Screw second, I'm going after him, seven titles be damnedl" First he was happy just beating the champ in San Diego. Then he got beat by the champ in a tough 20-lap battle and was upset. Then, at Anaheim Ill, he came from 10th to pass McGrath and take the win, and he said, "If there's any way I wanted to beat Jeremy, I wanted to come from behind to beat Later, in 1996, McGrath won 14 of the 15 rounds, finishing a close second to Jeff Emig at the next-to-Iast race of the season in St. Louis, Missourl. The unbeatable Jeremy McGrath then proceeded to shock the world - when he was forced off of the disguised 1993-framed CR250 that he loved so much and onto Honda's new aluminum-framed 1997 CR250 by signing with the most ailing "Well, only McGrath is beating me. I'm satisfied with that. I won the nonM G th I t ' ht " C ra c ass omg . It wasn't long before his patented uppercut put Douglas on his can - but, unlike all the previous challengers, Buster got up. And then he started fighting. The image of Tyson crawling around on the ring floor half-conscious will probably never be erased from my mind. The unbeatable fighter was beaten. Buster Douglas was the first man to not be intimidated by the champ, and his training let him outlast Tyson in the ring to secure his first and only World Boxing Championship. I suspect that up until that time, all the boxers that got in the ring with Tyson felt lucky just to be in a World Championship him." This kid's a scrapper, and he refuses to be satisfied with second place. In other words, Jeremy has finally gotten his challenge. You know what they say: "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it." Funny, though. Even with such an unexpectedly formidable opponent, McGrath doesn't appear scared. . Instead, he seems happy at the challenge, taking it as an opportunity to analyze his game in a search for "weak points" that he can fine-tune. After all, Jeremy McGrath didn't get this far by throwing in the towel any time he takes one on the chin. eN Japanese factory team in the paddock, Team Suzuki. His thinking may have been that if he could win on the Suzuki, no one could say that he was so strong because he rode for a team with a reputation for winning. McGrath says even today that he lost the 1997 championship because of a lack of preparation (partly a subsequence of switching to an unfamiliar bike days before the season started). A first-round encounter with former Coming up In • Daytona Preview Issue • AMA Superblke Championship Predictions • AMA Old Track Championship Predictions • Laughlin Hare SCrambles • ArIzona National Enduro cu cl • n • _!IS • FEBRUARY 21, 2001 87

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